By Irene Hsiao
Indole alkaloids have frequently been a source of medicines, particularly for the treatment of cancer. For synthetic chemists, they have also compelled advances in synthetic techniques for fashioning molecules and served as building blocks for a number of non-natural drugs. In "The Total Synthesis of (+)-Arborisidine," published 21 April 2019 in JACS, the Snyder group presents a total synthesis of arborisidine, a rare indole alkaloid isolated and characterized from Malaysian plants that possesses a unique polycyclic structure. In this work, the Snyder group combines tools they have previously used to synthesize alkaloids with new developments for a concise and efficient synthetic route to the molecule.